[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Sometimes I forget just how much black folks I am fam with until white folks discover something black and I realize not every white guy already knew that.

The issue with light vs black skin is one of politics, culture, and economics. Light skinned folks tend to have white family, and therefore somewhat benefit from white privilege whereas darker skinned black folks tend to get the wrong end of the stick in many regards. This has even been proven psychologically, that because of systemic racism even black people subconsciously react more negatively to images or experiences with darker skinned people (not even black, studies use images of darker skinned Indians and East Asians, same results)

For many reasons the American experience has created a subconscious mindset that darker is badder in every regard. Therefore in black culture darker skinned folks see themselves as something of an underdog character, and are ecstatic when they can stick it to light skinned folks.

Its part of the narrative as you mentioned of "good" and "bad" hair and also "passing"...

Today it manifests itself in the context of "acting white" or moving "to the suburbs"

Speaking of black politics and culture, its also why i value THIS era of the NBA so much better than the 80s and 90s.. while everyone likes all the fighting on the court, the reality is it reflected a sadder truth about rich white men exploiting black on black violence. I sizable portion of the 80s NBA audience had the mentality of "hey lets watch these jigaboos fight" or even worse "i hope he [white player] sticks it to that n****r"..

I'd much rather see successful, multimillion dollar black men hang out and have fun playing a game with each other as co-workers, not combatants.

Fighting is for the playground, this is entertainment.